Spitzer sees irony in Wonderland

Tons of reading is available on the New York State Inspector General’s Web site as testimony of its investigation into the Commission on Public Integrity was released. Among the items is IG Joseph Fisch’s Q&A with former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Here’s a tidbit from Spitzer about the allegation that the Commission Executive Director Herbert Teitelbaum had leaked confidential information he had gathered in his probe of the travel records scandal. He is not succinct.

Spitzer to Fisch:

“Now, as I said, the underlying issue is not one for me to pass judgment
upon, that is the domain of others. But the reason I remember it so clearly is that the irony could hardly have been missed. Here was the Ethics Commission’s chief counsel allegedly — and again, I
don’t want to pass judgment — allegedly violating the statutory obligation to maintain secret a particular matter under investigation when the allegation that had triggered this entire hullabaloo related to the disclosure of public information pursuant to a media request for that information and this tension struck me as merely highlighting the Alice in Wonderland nature of the entire underlying endeavor which, to me, has been an unfortunate irony that has not been sufficiently noted.”

He added that he was troubled by the leaks and he noted that he wished Albany could get back to things that mattered.